Letters to the Editor: Sept. 4

Reading critical remarks Republican candidates made about cap-and-trade legislation at the Fancy Farm affair made me realize I didn't know what "cap and trade" really meant.

So I decided to find out. It took a couple of hours of reading and studying. (Go to Sightline.org, search for "Cap and Trade 101" and then read "Cap and Trade 101: A Climate Policy Primer.")

The "cap" refers to a national plan to cap carbon dioxide pollution at its current level, and then gradually reduce CO2 emissions from known and controllable sources toward environmentally safer levels between now and 2050.

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This is done by auctioning or selling or even giving pollution "permits" to businesses and allowing them to "trade" or re-sell these permits to each other as individual business needs dictate.

This gives industries that pollute time to gradually reduce their CO2 emissions.

The important thing is that it commits the nation to a plan of pollution reduction and to a path toward energy independence.

So why would anyone at Fancy Farm be against cap-and-trade? Simple. It would require coal, oil and gas industries to change. And changing would be more expensive than maintaining the status quo.

It makes me wonder how many Kentucky voters actually understand what it is all about. I know I wasn't informed until a few days ago. Now I realize we should support this opportunity to protect our own lives.

Joseph P. Fox

Lexington

Level the roads

I have noticed some repairs being made to manhole covers to make them flush with the street surfaces.

Why wasn't this done before the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games said it was coming to Lexington?

Low curb drains are as dangerous as low manhole covers. They also should be made flush with the street surfaces.

One very dangerous area is in the northbound lane of South Broadway and Cedar Street.

If you are heading north in the right-hand lane of South Broadway, you have very little room to veer to the right to avoid the low manhole cover because of the deep curb drain. I know; I damaged my right front wheel in the curb drain.

Bill Manuel

Lexington

Fairway unfair

The Fairway Neighborhood Association has apparently prevailed in its campaign to block the sale of the former Julia R. Ewan Elementary School to the Vineyard Community Church. The association's position regarding concerns about increased traffic, parking, noise is a thinly veiled smokescreen.

The site has been used as a school for years, and as a destination site for teachers and students, generated its own traffic as a result.

The association's stance is a blatant example of NIMBY — not in my backyard. If the association were truthful, it would admit that the Vineyard Community Church is not "preferred" — perhaps the church may be slightly unorthodox, but it has an impressive record of doing good work and has provided significant assistance to many Lexington families in need.

Helping those less fortunate is an honorable calling, and does not necessarily translate into a pristine neighborhood being thrown into disarray by the presence of the "wrong" type of visitor, as the "Say No to Vineyard" smear campaign yard signs suggest.

Lexington is a wonderful place to live by taking an ecumenical view of its citizens and visitors. This profligate attitude shines a bright light on some very small people.

Fairway Neighborhood Association, you are not a shining example of a "fair way."

Thomas Rogers

Nicholasville

What do we value?

I commend Caleb Mathis for his excellent letter that appeared Aug. 8. I, too, was saddened at the Fairway neighborhood's negative response for a number of secular reasons to a request by the Vineyard Community Church to establish a congregation at the old J.R. Ewan School.

I also believe the Vineyard's response to this negativism was an admirable example of constraint and the application of sound Christian principles.

This controversy poses a sobering question for me as well as for all Christians: Are we storing our treasures on earth or in heaven?

Albert T. Brown

Lexington

Replant, water trees

I was just beginning to think Vine and Main streets were really "shaping up" for the upcoming WEG events ... that is until a recent evening when driving east on Vine.

I noticed a good number of the trees and plants recently planted were dead or dying.

Why would anyone who knows anything about planting and landscaping decide August (especially this August, one of the hottest/driest on record) was the appropriate time to do the planting?

The city said this week that the trees will be replaced before the Games begin. I hope they will be watered in a timely manner.

John B. Winn Jr.

Lexington

Focus on Labor Day

Since 1894, when Congress acted to make it a legal holiday, the first Monday in September has been observed as Labor Day. Most folks will take a day off from work and observe the day.

For many, it will be little more than a day of leisure that marks the unofficial end of summer and the beginning of fall.

Originally intended to be more than a day of leisure, Labor Day is to celebrate the significance of work and to recognize the dignity of those who work, and the importance of the contributions made to society by those who work.

The ideas behind Labor Day are not from the wistful thinking of impractical visionaries who lived 116 years ago. The origin of these ideas is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition that it is noble and honorable for an individual to earn a living "by the sweat of the brow," eventually to become proverbial a long time ago that "a laborer is worthy of his wages."

Thus, both the laborer and the employer share a joint responsibility that is summed up as: "A fair day's work for a fair day's wage." This places a moral obligation upon both the worker and the employer.

In the tradition of which we are a part, all work that is necessary and beneficial is good and honorable. Therefore, each individual, regardless of occupation, can take pride in whatever is done, knowing that the work is helping others and making life better.